Understanding Project Management Methodology And Its Application

Critical Analysis

This assignment is about the core understanding of project management methodology. Most of the people do not know the difference between the project management and management. Project management is a time bound process, whereas management is an ongoing process, this is a main factor that differ the project management from management.  Project management is a process of initiating, planning, executing and working closely the work of a team to achieve the common objectives of the organizations (Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia 2015). A project manager is also different from a routine manager, a project manager can be temporarily appointed to work on a particular project and as soon as the project is completed, he will get back to his normal or routine position. Now if we talk about project management methodology, these are the designed methods or techniques to work on time bound projects in order to achieve successful result for the organization (Hari 2014). There are top 5 project management methodologies namely; Traditional, Sequential Methodologies, PMBOK method, AGILE family, Change Management method, Process based methodology (Poe 2012). In this assignment we are going to study in detail about these methodologies and which suits best to the organization mentioned in the above paragraph.

In this project we have given three organizations namely; A, B & C. A is a small size organization that is into financial services industry and its location of operations are New Zealand and Australia. A as mentioned is a small scale organization it does not need much time to implement a project management methodology and the senior managers can influence the higher authorities to listen to them. On the other hand there is organization B, that is a medium scale organization and into the business of building societies, it currently have 600 employees working and the location of their operations are Australia only. Organization B is in a very haphazard state, they are using only one project methodology in all their projects even after being a medium scale organization they are only using single methodology that is affecting their management. Now if we talk about organization C, it is a large scale firm into technology industry with having a number of 1200 employees working for it. Now we have to discuss different methodologies that will work best for each of the organization. Below are few main project management methodologies that are mostly used by different organizations.

• Waterfall: This methodology is the most common and a traditional project methodology that works step by step and no step can begin before the current step is completed. This methodology is best suited for the organization that are into (Buildings or computers) etc. The pitfall of this methodology is that any demand of change by the customer will make the methodology difficult to handle. However it is considered to be the simplest methodology that an organization that is into making of physical objects can opt(Marco 2009).
• Critical Path Method (CPM): Critical path method also works as Waterfall but in CPM method only that activity is done which holds more importance than others. It is a method that tells the manager about the important and non important steps to perform. So the manager directs his team to work on only important task and leave the non important tasks for later (Rob 2001).
• Critical Chain Project Management: This method is as same as CPM method; however it considers the resources to be used in the tasks. Then in this method the tasks are rescheduled and the task with the most priority is done first with the reserved resources(Tinderson 2011).

Most of the management experts and peoples say that PMI/PMBOK is not a project methodology; however we have seen many managers saying that they use PMI/PMBOK methodology in their organizations. It is the easiest methodology that simply breaks down the task into 5 simple steps namely; Initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing (University 2011). The task manager initiate, plans, execute, control and close the work of the team together and ensures that everything is working properly, so that the scheduled objective can be achieved in a time bound manner.

Traditional Methodologies

In English Agile means the ability to move quickly and responding to changes swiftly. Unlike Waterfall and other traditional methodologies, AGILE does not takes much time to finish a project. The methodology of agile is to break down the project into different parts and the team will be divided to takes up each part of the project. AGILE method is capable of showing the final product to its client before the completion of the project. Another feature of agile is that it can change the final product as per the demand of the customer (Sutherland 2001).

Prince2 is another project methodology that is a de facto of the government of the United Kingdom that is widely accepted in the private sector of UK and internationally also. Prince2 is not like waterfall or other methodologies. It is a tailor made and ready to fit any organization ‘methodology’. Prince2 is a joint venture that is owned by the cabinet office and the capita with both having 49% and 51% respectively. Prince2 methodology believes in the division of the work into different parts and stages and the most important stages or parts are taken into consideration before any other thing (Vishal 2016).

In this part of the assignment we will select the different methodologies for the organization A, B & C. As mentioned above A is a small scale organization, while B & C are medium and large scale organizations.

Organization A is a small scale organization that is into the business of financial services and has 80 number of working employees. The location that they are providing their services is Australia and New Zealand. The manager’s of organization A influence their higher authorities to use a project methodology to complete their projects before deadlines and they can achieve more profitability and effectiveness into their workings. The best suited project methodology for organization A would be the traditional methodologies as they are best suited for small group organizations. In traditional methodologies Waterfall, CPM, CCPM are the methodologies that the organization A can use to achieve its scheduled projects. Below is a diagram that will help the audience to easily understand how traditional methodology works and why we have chosen it for organization A (Tamerson 2011):

Organization B is into the business of building society and is currently employing 600 employees in the firm. Organization B is a medium scale organization; it is using only one single project methodology for every project. That is the main reason for it being disorganized. For organization B it would be profitable and appropriate if it chooses AGILE methodology into its projects. As agile methodology has different software’s or methodology that will help the firm to work on different projects with perfection and agile will deal with different projects as required (Amri 2003). Earlier the firm was using only one methodology for its entire projects which left the firm unorganized and messy. Below is the picture that shows how agile methodology works:

PMI/ PMBOK Method

As mentioned organization C is into the business of technology services. It is a large scale firm that is currently providing employment to 1200 workers. Organization C is mostly driven by the demand from their customers, which means that at any time there customers can demand changes into the services provided by them. Organization has standard methodology for their organization, which sooner or later going to affect the profitability and the effectiveness of the business of the organization C. So it is recommended for organization C to use a combination of methodologies. At lower level organization C should traditional methodologies and for the middle and higher level agile methodologies must be come in to use. By opting a combination of different methodologies the organization will not only lock its success but it will see favorable outcomes at every end.

• Project methodology is a very important method of completing a task with the help these methodologies. Preparing a Project methodology is a top level management activity, while implementing the project methodology in the organization is the role of middle level management(Buck 2000). The lower management in project management is to follow what the top level has decided. Top level consists of owners, who are highly intellectual and experienced and they know what is best for the organization so it is their level activity is to decide and to prepare policies, rules and regulations and implementing those policies, rules and regulations are the responsibility of the middle level management. Now the question arises whom should be involved in this process, the owner of the organization—the head of advisory board, CEO, the board of directors, the functional managers, the major project managers (Adrian 2012).

Well the answer to this question is a big no. why? Because sometimes a large scale organization perform a number of projects of different nature on a same time and it is not possible for any project methodology to work effectively on every task (Vissan 2005). Every project needs a specialized project methodology that is implemented individually for each project. To support our statement, we will take an example of organization D, it is a large scale firm hence it must be performing a large of activities and it must have numerous projects that are to be completed. So in order to complete all the projects that organization D has in its squad, a number of different methodologies must be opted so that the methodologies can give desired results.

• Lack of Experience: While the project methodologies are prepared by the highly intellectual top level management. Whereas these methodologies are implemented by the middle level managers (Project Manager). If the manager does not holds good experience than even the best of the methodologies will result in failure.
• Undefined Goals: Undefined goals are another issue that the management can face while implementing the project methodologies. If the goals of the management are not clear or are undefined then that will be an issue in front of the management.
• Impossible Deadlines: The need of project methodologies was arise to complete the project before the arrival of the deadlines. However sometimes a company gets a project that comes with impossible requirement and deadlines that can’t be achieved. Hence it is another issue while implementing a chosen methodology.
• Lack of Resources: Any project that is to be achieved requires sufficient resources. An organization that itself lacks in the case of resources will not achieve favorable results even after implementing the best methodology.
• Poor Communication: When a project is undertaken by an organization and a project methodology is implemented into it then a special project manager is also appointed for that project. If the communication between the project manager and his team is suffering from poor communication then it will not only results in the failure of the project but it will also bring a bad name for the organization as the client trusted the organization for his project.

Above are few issues that might comes up while implementing a chosen methodology, in order to take the maximum profit out of the methodology the organization first must works on the mentioned issues (Sigur 2017).

In order to make the methodology work successfully in the favor of the organization, the organization or the management needs to work on few of its loopholes. Goals of the organization must be defined; the management must know what they want from the methodology and why it is implemented (Mehta 2007). The management must know that sometimes the projects comes with impossible requirements that can’t be completed even after applying any methodology to it, hence in that case the management not take up any such projects. If the organization is suffering from the lack of resources then even the implementation of the methodologies will not be able to help the management, in that case the organization first make sure that they have abundance of the resources in order to implement different methodologies successfully (Cizar 2013). Communication between the team and the managers and the team mates must be improved so that no communication error occurs when the team is performing any activity to make the task successful (Aj 2009). All these are the things that can be done in order to address the difficulties that occur while implementing different methodologies. 

• Increase the profitability: Project management methodologies helps in increasing the profitability of the business, by helping the managers to focus on decided projects(Robart 2006).
• Increase the Effectiveness of the staff: When the staff is focused and knows what to achieve in order to complete the project, the effectiveness of the staff automatically increases.
• Brings good name: When the organization starts completing the given task before deadlines, the client recommends the services and products of the organizations to others. This will help in bringing good name to the organization(Mendis 2010).

AGILE Method

Conclusion

After going through all the facts and the information above, here is a meaningful conclusion has been written. Project Methodologies are the techniques or the tools that help the management to complete the projects that are difficult to achieve on time. Project management is different from management and even the managers are specially appointed for to undertake the projects in project management. Hence project management is a very important and crucial part of the organization.       

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